


A Kingdom in My Wake

by Lunarium



Category: Original Work
Genre: Eldritch, Friendship, Gen, Loyalty, Making Friends with Eldritch Abominations, Mercy - Freeform, Spaceships, Unexpected Mercy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23128399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: A kind gesture from a good heart is paid in kind.
Relationships: Deepspace Eldritch Horror & Friendly Janitor on Generation Ship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34
Collections: Teratophilia Trade 2020





	A Kingdom in My Wake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sheliak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheliak/gifts).



No one liked Kel. 

Every inhabitant who ever resided on the generational ship The Trident had enjoyed a spotless environment thanks to one tirelessly working man, but not a single nod of gratitude was ever given in his direction. Kel, far older than any resident aboard, had seen the old generations pass and new generations take their spot, and still the same attitudes persisted. 

There was little he could do against the taunts and sniggers behind the hands of the younger ones or the scorn of the older folks. As the only inhabitant from the fallen planet Utinia, he worked and ate and lived at the mercy of his planet’s conquerors. 

But not everyone despised Kel. 

There was one who welcomed the presence of the soft-spoken janitor. Kel never knew what name they preferred—he didn’t know much about them at all—but like himself this fellow was an inhabitant who had come against their will and would live forever in the belly of The Trident. 

Many years had passed since the day Kel had watched the crew drag in a tank with the creature within. Now he reckoned the creature must have been an elder like himself, if they were not already an adult at the time of their capture. 

Scientists often spent time with the creature while Kel was tending to some other duties in another sector, but he had some idea of the torture the poor creature underwent. At times a cry would carry down to the hall he mopped.

After finishing his morning duties he would enter the lab, working his way about, undisturbed, until the vicinity cleared and he was alone with the creature. Approaching the small circular window, he knelt and gave a wave, then waited. A gigantic eye appeared from the depths. 

“Still here,” Kel chuckled. “Good, good.” 

Kel ate lunch beside the tank and shared stories about his day. The creature did not speak, but they would tap against the tank as means of response. At times Kel would share a portion of his lunch with the creature. Each offering earned him a series of taps in return. 

Kel always tapped back as he replied with a, “You’re welcome, dear friend.” 

Recently, the creature had gotten into the habit of tapping rhythmically and continuously such that it lulled Kel to sleep, finding the sound melodic and pleasant to the ears. 

* * *

His skin prickled at the sight, the once bustling street was now a ghost town. Screams still echoed in Kel’s mind. With tentative, shaking steps he peered around the corner.

Where there was once a tank in the lab now lay a garbled metallic mess in the middle of a flooded lab. Personnel who had been present at the moment the creature broke through must have evaded the being, or been whisked away by the others.

All these months, Kel thought as he stepped back into the lab, and the tapping which he had been enjoying was the creature _communicating_. The Trident itself hadn’t picked up any readings. Because his friend had warned them. The alien beings had been clever planning their ambush. 

The air grew colder, and Kel shivered as something neared the lab. With no time to run and hide, he slowly turned to face the creature he had befriended. Incredibly tall, monstrous, with tentacles producing from their oral cavity, his friend trod alongside another, but Kel still instantly recognizes which one was his friend by the color of his eyes. 

The other noticed him and made to strike when his friend brought a long-clawed hand up. 

Exchange of words was not in any language that Kel knew and yet somehow he perfectly understood them as if by some deeply-ingrained intuition: he was to be spared, he was friend, the ship was now his. Little hardship will he now face. 

From the corner of his eye Kel could spot a few of the ship’s inhabitants watching him out of fear and respect. Catching their gaze, they immediately looked away and left. 

Standing there in the kingdom left in their wake, Kel watched them pass the lab without another word.


End file.
